China and Russia began operating this week a new space weather center intended to provide information and predictions to international aeronautical operators.
According to Chinese media, it is the fourth center of this type. The remaining three are under the orbit of the United States, a European consortium and a group of countries made up of Australia, Canada, France and Japan.
“Monitors space weather events including solar activity and issues warnings for aviation operators“Zhang Xiaoxin, from the National Center for Meteorological Satellites, explained about the project project that was approved last year by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the United Nations agency that oversees the sector.
According to the state newspaper China Daily, the official also warned about the danger of solar flares. In that sense, he explained that “space weather can affect the safety of navigation, communications, positioning and avionics effectiveness“.
He also explained that solar flares can result in radiation ten times greater than what passengers and crew would receive on the ground, “something that can affect their health,” he added.
The new entity, with facilities in Beijing and Moscow, depends on the Meteorological and Civil Aviation administrations of China, as well as their Russian counterparts, explains that Asian medium.
In the case of China, the Meteorological Administration monitors space weather, issues predictions, and investigates related technologies, using a combination of satellites and ground-tracking networks.
China’s Fengyun 3E weather satellite took off in July and took its first pictures of the sun.
Last September, China’s Fengyun 3E weather satellite took its first pictures of the sun. This will improve predictions about the activity of the star and its impact on terrestrial and space meteorology.
Fengyun-3E took off on July 5 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (Gobi desert, north China) and is a satellite for civilian use that monitors the climate, oceans, ice and space weather.
“Maximum solar flare”
At the end of October, a powerful flare on the surface of the sun, an event that the experts cataloged in the maximum class of the solar activity measurement scale. According to specialists, it was the strongest storm that has been detected in the current cycle of our star.
The eruption occurred on the side that points to Earth And it went on for about half an hour. It was classified as an X1-class flash and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) managed to capture an image of the event.
NASA recorded a maximum solar flare that could cause a magnetic storm on Earth
As that space agency explains, the X class indicates the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about their strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, and so on.
The flare was powerful enough to temporarily cause a strong radio blackout in the sunny part of Earth, with the focus on South America, the US Center for Space Meteorology said.
With information from EFE.
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